World's largest passenger plane gets more U.S. routes

Travelers hoping to catch a glimpse of — or a seat on — the world's biggest commercial passenger plane in the U.S. will find more options than ever this year.

Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) became the latest U.S. airport to land service on the Airbus A380 last week, joining seven other U.S. airports that already have regular flights on the double-decked airliner.

The A380, so big that it's been dubbed a "superjumbo" jet, isn't new to the United States. It's been flying here since 2008, when Emirates — now the world's largest operator of the aircraft — made its maiden passenger flight on the A380 on a route from Dubai to New York JFK.

This year, the number of A380 routes in the United States has proliferated, with five airlines set to add seven new U.S. routes between August and December. That will grow the number of nonstop routes from the USA with at least seasonal A380 service to 22 by the end of 2014, a year-over-year increase of about 30%.

Industry experts say that's no surprise, since the number of A380s flying for airlines has steadily increased since 2007, when Singapore Airlines became the first to fly paying passengers on the jet.

The number of A380s flying for commercial airlines has tripled since 2010, going from 41 flying for four airlines that year to 142 across 12 airlines as of October this year. And Airbus says it has a backlog of 179 orders for A380s that it has yet to deliver, including 89 slated to go to Emirates. The world's biggest operator of the jet, Emirates already had 51 A380s in its fleet as of mid-September.

"Emirates has a lot of A380s and they need to put them somewhere," says Brett Snyder, author of The Cranky Flier aviation blog. "They're growing all over the U.S."

Similarly, other international carriers have looked to the U.S. as they've taken new A380s.

Snyder also notes that a number of big U.S. airports couldn't handle the oversize A380 when it made its debut in 2007, but have since made upgrades to accommodate the jet.

In 2010, New York JFK and Los Angeles were the only American cities with scheduled service on the aircraft. Since then, those airports have been joined by a half-dozen other U.S. airports. Miami, San Francisco and Washington Dulles all got their first regular A380 routes in 2011, followed by Houston Bush Intercontinental in 2012 and Atlanta in 2013.

DFW joined the list last week with new A380 service from two different airlines. Australian carrier Qantas gave the airport its first-ever regular A380 service Sept. 29, when it switched to A380s on its DFW-Sydney route, which is now the world's longest commercial airline route. Dubai-based Emirates switched to the aircraft for its flights to the United Arab Emirates from DFW two days later.

"It's been a fantastic week," Sean Donohue, CEO at DFW, said shortly after the airport's second A380 route commenced on Wednesday. "We've really focused on improving the international profile of both the airport and the region. In many ways, it's been a milestone."

Underscoring the A380's expanding footprint, there was a third new A380 route to launch within the U.S. last week. That came Friday, when British Airways put its A380s on one of its flights to Washington Dulles, given that airport its second route on the superjumbo.

Despite the influx of A380 flights to the U.S. on foreign carriers, however, no U.S. airline has yet to place an order with Airbus to the jet. And most industry experts don't expect that to change.

With nearly 180 orders for still outstanding from overseas carriers, the number of A380 flights to the U.S. is only likely to increase, says Alan Bender, Professor of Aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida.

"There's plenty of room left," Bender says of the outlook for A380 routes to the U.S. "We still do not see A380s on the vast majority of major routes to Europe and Asia from the U.S. There's a lot of room for growth. A lot."

Against that potential, U.S. airports are doing what they can to accommodate the A380. Many still must undertake upgrades to be able to handle the aircraft's extreme height and wingspan.

DFW, for example, spent about $4.5 million to reconfigure two gates so that the airport could handle simultaneous A380 flights. The airport has made other improvements, such as adding about 250 seats to its A380-capable gates and making modifications to ramps and taxiways.

Other airports are making similar moves. Among those, Boston's Logan International Airport, which says a $100 million renovation on its Terminal E includes upgrades that would allow it to accommodate the A380's height and wingspan.

"International flights are the largest growing sector at Logan,'' Massport CEO Thomas Glynn said in announcing the initiative. "We need to do our part to keep up with the industry and our carriers' needs."

Using British Airways as an example, Massport — the agency that operates Boston Logan — noted the carrier can seat about 170 more passengers on the A380 than on the 747s and 777s it currently uses on its routes to Boston.